Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog

Friday, March 31, 2006

Does Loophole Give Rich Kids More Time on SAT?

What a total disgrace!

With intense competition to get into Ivy League and other elite colleges, students say they need nearly perfect SAT scores, as well as great grades and impressive extra-curricular activities. A rising chorus of critics say high school students from wealthy ZIP codes and elite schools obtain questionable diagnoses of learning disabilities to secure extra time to take the SATs and beef up their scores...

At the elite Wayland High school outside Boston, the number of students receiving special accommodations is more than 12 percent, more than six times the estimated national average of high school students with learning disabilities.

Wayland guidance counselor Norma Greenberg said that it's not that difficult for wealthy, well-connected students to get the diagnoses they want.

"There are a lot of hired guns out there, there are a lot of psychologists who you can pay a lot of money to and get a murky diagnosis of subtle learning issues," Greenberg said. "'Subtle' is a word that is really a red flag. 'Executive functioning' is another red flag, something that is kind of a new thing."

Other high school guidance counselors told ABC News that "diagnosis shopping" has given rise to a cottage industry of doctors and medical professionals, all willing to give students the documentation they need to get the extra test time they want.

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Does Loophole Give Rich Kids More Time on SAT?

Educators Say More Wealthy Students Get Diagnosed With Learning Disabilities to Get More Time on Test

by JAKE TAPPER, DAN MORRIS and LARA SETRAKIAN, ABC News

March 30, 2006 — - When Ali Hellberg, 19, was in prep school, she said several of her classmates obtained notes from psychologists diagnosing them with learning disabilities, even though they didn't have any learning problems.

They faked learning disabilities to get extra time to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, in the hopes of getting a higher score, she said.

"I had a friend who is a good math student but is no math brain, and she got extended time and got a perfect score on her math SAT," Hellberg said.

That friend now attends an Ivy League school.

Some call this scheme the rich-kids loophole. With intense competition to get into Ivy League and other elite colleges, students say they need nearly perfect SAT scores, as well as great grades and impressive extra-curricular activities. A rising chorus of critics say high school students from wealthy ZIP codes and elite schools obtain questionable diagnoses of learning disabilities to secure extra time to take the SATs and beef up their scores.

Hellberg believes that to get into Harvard or Princeton, she'd need to score at least a 1500. The highest SAT score is 1600.

"I got below 1400 and I knew I didn't have a shot getting into an Ivy despite my grades and extra-curriculars," she said...

1) Below is John Kirtley's assessment of the ACLU's actions in Florida regarding which of the state's voucher programs it's choosing to challenge in court. It is indeed a sad day for a great organization if the ACLU is making these decisions based on cold political calculus.

The real reason is so clear: they don't want to challenge Bright Futures because it is tremendously popular with upper middle class voters. And they haven't filed their suit on pre-K yet because they don't want to make plain their intention to sue until after the November elections, when there may be on the ballot a constitutional amendment protecting school choice from pre-K to college. They sent a letter to the House Speaker and Senate President last year threatening litigation if faith-based providers were allowed in the pre-K program. They were. Where's the suit? They admit themselves that "we become the target" so they wait until after the election.

This is the organization that claims to be immune from bad publicity? Who takes the tough, unpopular but principled stands? That defends the right of Nazis to march in Illinois?

2) Here's an article about the ACLU in Florida. At least they seem to be honest about their hypocrisy...

Kirtley said that is disingenuous and accused the ACLU of waiting until after a possible vote on a constitutional change this November to get involved, rather than becoming a lightning rod for voucher opponents to rally support.

Spalding agrees an ACLU suit would draw flak.

"If we go that route, then we're going to be the target," Spalding said.

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Comments by John Kirtley:

I find it incredible that the ACLU is given a free pass on this. They filed suit the day the Opportunity Scholarship Program was signed into law, so concerned were they that money might flow to faith-based organizations. Yet with the pre-K program, tens of thousands of children and tens of millions of dollars have already done so--and yet "they are studying the issue." They admit that Blaine is worse with the pre-K program, and yet offer no reason for not filing suit.

With Bright Futures Scholarships, which are funded by state taxpayers, they claim "college is not mandatory", so it doesn't trouble them. OSP was voluntary as well--but whether it is or not isn't relevant to the constitutional issue at hand! Look at just a sampling of colleges receiving funds under Bright Futures -- they are more religious than any K-12 school in the OSP. The ACLU knows this and yet they don't file suit.

They aren't going to challenge McKay scholarships because these kids "aren't well served?" Were the OSP kids being well served? Again whether the children are or not is totally irrelevant to the constitutional issue the ACLU raised.

The real reason is so clear: they don't want to challenge Bright Futures because it is tremendously popular with upper middle class voters. And they haven't filed their suit on pre-K yet because they don't want to make plain their intention to sue until after the November elections, when there may be on the ballot a constitutional amendment protecting school choice from pre-K to college. They sent a letter to the House Speaker and Senate President last year threatening litigation if faith-based providers were allowed in the pre-K program. They were. Where's the suit? They admit themselves that "we become the target" so they wait until after the election.

This is the organization that claims to be immune from bad publicity? Who takes the tough, unpopular but principled stands? That defends the right of Nazis to march in Illinois?

No one in the Florida press will hold them accountable. The ACLU's real intentions and their hypocrisy goes unnoticed. There are real consequences to this press timidity: our Senate may not put the issue on the ballot because there isn't enough sympathy in that body for 30,000 poor and handicapped kids. But if they knew that Bright Futures and pre-k were at risk, that might spur them to act. The Senate will be voting in about three weeks. We desperately need someone to call attention to this issue.

TALLAHASSEE -- Hoping to mobilize support to protect vouchers, proponents of the now-unconstitutional Opportunity Scholarship Program have warned that the American Civil Liberties Union and others will attempt to kill some of the state's most popular educational plans unless lawmakers act.

Not likely, said an ACLU lobbyist earlier this month, though he said the group is still considering legal action against the state's new prekindergarten program.

Pro-voucher politicians, including Gov. Jeb Bush, have said the ACLU will not be satisfied with the Florida Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year that ended the OSP. That program gave about 700 students in failing public schools taxpayer money to attend private schools.

The court did not rule on the ACLU's concerns that the program unconstitutionally used public money to send children to church-based schools. Instead, it said the program was unconstitutional since it created a separate education system that did not meet the same standards as public schools, such as requirements to take the FCAT standardized test.

Voucher proponents say popular programs like the Bright Futures program, which allows Florida college students to use money to attend public and faith-based colleges, and the McKay Scholarship plan, which allows students with special needs to attend church-run schools, would also be in jeopardy unless the constitution is changed.

But ACLU lobbyist Larry Spalding said earlier this month the group has no intentions of challenging either the McKay or Bright Futures programs.

That drew an angry challenge from John Kirtley, a Tampa millionaire who has championed vouchers.

"I think that's a ruse," Kirtley said. "They sued on the OSP program because they said money flowing to faith-based providers of K-12 education violates"the constitution.

He said the ACLU's claim that the OSP was unconstitutional while ignoring other programs that allow state money to go to faith-based schools or colleges was "intellectually dishonest."

Yet Spalding said OSP was different from Bright Futures and the McKay program. He said Bright Futures students are adults voluntarily choosing options and are not required to attend school like K-12 students. McKay addresses students with unique needs that cannot be served in public schools, he said.

Kirtley said that is disingenuous and accused the ACLU of waiting until after a possible vote on a constitutional change this November to get involved, rather than becoming a lightning rod for voucher opponents to rally support.

Spalding agrees an ACLU suit would draw flak.

"If we go that route, then we're going to be the target," Spalding said.

Voters in 2002 chose to require the state to provide a fully-funded option for 4-year-olds to attend pre-K classes. The state opted to pay private schools, including church-run facilities, to teach some of the participating students.

Spalding said the lack of a public school alternative makes the pre-K program a more blatant violation of the constitutional ban on the use of taxpayers' money to pay for religious uses.

"On the church-state issue, pre-K is worse," Spalding said. ACLU officials sent a letter to legislative leaders last year threatening legal woes if the pre-K plan allowed faith-based providers.

Asked why the ACLU has not legally challenged the pre-K program that is now nearly a year old, Spalding said the issue was still being studied. The ACLU sued the state immediately after the OSP was put into place.

Tens of thousands of children and their families are now enrolled in the pre-K program.

Even lawmakers who have mixed feelings about vouchers feel programs like pre-K, McKay and Bright Futures may be left vulnerable to legal attacks unless lawmakers act.

"If we don't do something this year," said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, the ACLU or another group "could bring the whole process of vouchers to an end."

This year, sufficient legislative support appears to exist to change the law so that most of the students currently in the OSP program could receive the corporate vouchers to maintain attendance at their current schools.

But Bush and others feel the constitution must be changed to not only resurrect OSP, but to protect the corporate voucher plan and the McKay Scholarships.

The Florida House concurs, but the Senate has yet to even consider such a constitutional remedy, which would need a three-fifths approval in the House and Senate before facing a statewide vote in November.

Senate Education Committee chairwoman Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, said that three weeks into this year's two-month-long session, she has yet to see any such proposals in the Senate.

"If someone wanted to do the bill or have the bill, it would be floating around somewhere, and I haven't seen it," she said.

King said it has been difficult to get a majority of senators to back vouchers in the past, and the Supreme Court decision has only added to their reticence.

"I'm not so sure that the Senate in particular is that eager to jump into waters that they know now are tested," he said.

King is pushing legislation that would enact stricter rules on private schools accepting voucher students. Whether that would be sufficient to meet the Supreme Court's concerns is unknown.

It's a sign of the new defensive posture among advocates of school choice that OSP, once touted as an integral part of revamping education, is now portrayed as a tiny experiment.

School Aid: Meet the New Math, Same as the Old

What a total disgrace! This crazy, unfair system can't be changed soon enough...

"The Senate and Assembly both jealously and tenaciously guard their education share from the state," said Steven Sanders, formerly chairman of the Assembly's education committee and now a lobbyist. "Who benefits the most? I wish I could say the school districts and children, but clearly that has not been the case, and that has not changed."

Even the political calculus that dictates how money is sent to schools is murky. Sometimes, the more power legislators have, the more money their districts receive. Other times, the aid is doled out to protect vulnerable members.

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March 31, 2006

School Aid: Meet the New Math, Same as the Old

ALBANY, March 30 — They call it "the formula": an arcane scheme as unknowable as the recipe for Coca-Cola that is supposed to determine with mathematical objectivity how the state divides education aid among 677 school districts.

But as every legislator knows, politics, not formulas, actually govern the allocation of school aid, more than $17 billion this year. And guiding that process, which riles Albany every budget season, are a couple of unwritten rules...

Pataki Asks 'Significant Changes' In Budget, But Leverage Limited

Here's the latest on what's going on in Albany on the charter cap lift. This is completely ridiculous! "The Senate may also demand that school districts be given the power to approve any new charter schools. Such a provision could prevent the establishment of such independent schools outside New York City"

Senate Republicans are showing signs of being flexible on two key education provisions in the governor's executive budget - a lift in the cap on charter schools and the creation of a tuition tax credit - that lawmakers from both chambers have thus far resisted.

Senate Republicans indicated yesterday that they would negotiate a deal with the governor to increase the number of the charter schools in New York City by 50 and in the rest of the state by 100.The issue of charter schools "is not dead at all," the Republican majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, said. "We are very open and want to make something happen."

Mr. Bruno said the Senate had "concerns" about the tax money that public school districts lose when students transfer to charter schools. The Senate, in its talks with the governor, will probably demand transitional aid to school districts that have a higher percentage of students enrolled in charter schools. The Senate may also demand that school districts be given the power to approve any new charter schools. Such a provision could prevent the establishment of such independent schools outside New York City, where they are supported by Mayor Bloomberg.

Pataki Asks 'Significant Changes' In Budget, But Leverage Limited

ALBANY - The last time Governor Pataki grumbled about a legislative budget "spending too much and reforming too little," he wielded his pen and vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars in spending.

That was two years ago. Now, as a lame duck executive with months left in office, Mr. Pataki is making similar complaints about the 2006-07 budget, which the Legislature is expected to pass on Friday. This time, the reaction from lawmakers has been a collective yawn.

With both the Senate and the Assembly appearing to be united around their on-time and record-large budget agreement and with the governor short on bargaining chips, Mr. Pataki's leverage is limited, fiscal observers and lawmakers say...

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Andy Rotherham has twins and joins the board of Education Reform Now

On a more personal note, huge congratulations to Andy Rotherham and his wife, who welcomed two bouncin' baby girls into the world earlier this week. Aren't girls the best? May they someday grow up to be as healthy and happy as my threeladies!

What if we held lotteries in all 40 charter-law states on the same day – kind of a Charter Powerball – with thousands and thousands of kids clamoring to squeeze into the too-few spaces available? Think it might impress policymakers enough to lift inane "caps" on expansion and growth of charter schools?

3) Finally from Joe's blog, a nice profile of someone who represents the best of Teach for America and KIPP:

Like many students in college, Sylvie Griffiths was staring at several different possible paths for her future. She loved the theater and had a strong interest in environmental policy. But like many people who find themselves on the front lines of modern-day school reform, she began to view educational inequities as a form of injustice.

"I was absolutely appalled by the state of public education in this country," Griffiths said. During her junior year at Colby College, she volunteered at a school in Harlem and she was hooked for good.

Today Griffiths, 25, a founding teacher at KIPP Tech Valley, in Albany, says she set out to learn as much as possible about how to "reach kids in the most effective way."

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Chalkboard Profile: Sylvie Griffiths

Like many students in college, Sylvie Griffiths was staring at several different possible paths for her future. She loved the theater and had a strong interest in environmental policy. But like many people who find themselves on the front lines of modern-day school reform, she began to view educational inequities as a form of injustice.

"I was absolutely appalled by the state of public education in this country," Griffiths said. During her junior year at Colby College, she volunteered at a school in Harlem and she was hooked for good.

Today Griffiths, 25, a founding teacher at KIPP Tech Valley, in Albany, says she set out to learn as much as possible about how to "reach kids in the most effective way."

After graduating cum laude with a degree in human development, Griffiths began her teaching career as a Teach For America corps member in the Mississippi Delta where she taught 7th and 8th grade reading.

"I failed pretty miserably early on," Griffiths said of her early teaching. Her learning process involved plenty of self-reflection and self-criticism. "I looked to other people to find the best ways to do things and was always asking myself how my classroom could be more effective," she said. "I spent a good deal of time reading and thinking about curriculum and visiting other successful teachers."

By December of her second year of teaching, each student had read an average of 12 grade level books and had a class average of 81% on all first semester reading benchmarks. In addition, Sylvie directed a play tied to her reading curriculum that students performed on the main stage at Delta State University in front of 300 elementary students.

"I'm a performer at heart," Griffiths said. "It's really about selling the kids on what you’re teaching. When we're passionate about the material, the kids will be too." Griffiths said she was drawn to KIPP's program by its "very positive school climate and its potential to truly empower kids."

Like other KIPP schools, KIPP Tech Valley is in session for over 200 days each year, including Saturday classes held at least twice each month. Classes run from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. "It's a unique environment," Griffiths said of KIPP, crediting the program's consistency in dealing with its students for much of its success. "It's all about the kids and how we can support each other to ensure our students are getting the best education possible." Asked about what she likes to do outside of school (at first she laughed, "You mean what did I like to do before I worked at KIPP?") she listed community theater, reading, and exercise.

Griffiths has studied theater and art history in London, and was once awarded the Mayor's Citation for public service in her hometown of Baltimore, MD. Griffiths said her focus right now is on making sure every one of her 79 students is making the grade. "Right now my goal is to get my kids to be grade level and ultimately life long readers. My job is to support them along the way," Griffiths said.

Too many children left behind

Hear, hear! Sometimes amidst all the noise, politics, etc. it's easy to forget that what matters is what's best for the CHILDREN!

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, please, look at the faces of Darshawn, Jaylin, Sydney and Kayla and try to comprehend how their hopes, and the hopes of all the rest, are being dashed because you have refused to authorize any more charter schools. Try also to imagine the frustration of parents who are only looking for decent educations for their kids...

These parents want only a good education for their kids. To deny them because some upstate school districts say they are losing too many children to charters or because teachers unions think charters should be more easily unionized would be an outrage. Shelly and Joe, can you really look at the faces of Darshawn, Jaylin, Sydney and Kayla and say no to more charters?

The four children pictured here - Darshawn Wynn, Jaylin Laboy, Sydney and Kayla McLeod - were among 278 youngsters who were turned away from admission to the Harlem Success Charter School on Wednesday night because the school, which opens in the fall, had no room for them.

Their parents were desperate to get Darshawn, Jaylin, Sydney and Kayla into Success Charter because they believe it will offer greater educational opportunity than other public schools in their neighborhoods. The families of the 274 other kids whose names were not drawn in the admissions lottery had been just as eager to sign up.

In that respect, Darshawn, Jaylin, Sydney and Kayla stand for them all, as well as for the thousands of children who are on waiting lists for the 62 charters that have already opened in the city - virtually all of them outperforming the surrounding traditional public schools - or are on the drawing board

Facts and Folly; Teaching at Risk: Progress & Potholes

Friedman makes some great points about the urgent need to improve our educational system, especially the quality of teachers:

Mr. Gerstner understood that an extraordinary company could stay that way only if it had a critical mass of extraordinary people. This is the message of his Teaching Commission: We cannot remain an extraordinary country without a critical mass of extraordinary teachers.

"If teaching remains a second-rate profession, America's economy will be driven by second-rate skills," Mr. Gerstner says. "We can wake up today — or we can have a rude awakening sooner than we think."

The Teaching Commission notes that "our schools are only as good as their teachers," yet this "occupation that makes all others possible is eroding at its foundations." Top students are far less likely to go into teaching today; salaries are stagnant; nearly 50 percent of new teachers leave within five years. To remedy this, the commission calls for raising teachers' base pay, finding ways to reward the best teachers, raising standards for acquiring a teaching degree and testing would-be teachers, on the basis of national standards, to be certain they have mastered the subjects they will teach (theteachingcommission.org).

Facts and Folly

I was leaving for a trip the other day and scooped up some reading material off my desk for the plane ride. I found myself holding three documents: one was the Bush administration's National Security Strategy for 2006; another was a new study by the Economic Strategy Institute entitled "America's Technology Future at Risk," about how America is falling behind the world in broadband. And the third was "Teaching at Risk," a new report by the Teaching Commission, headed by the former I.B.M. chairman Louis Gerstner Jr., about the urgent need to upgrade the quality and pay of America's K-12 teachers.

The contrast was striking. The Bush strategy paper presupposes that we are a rich country and always will be, and that the only issue is how we choose to exercise our power. But what the teaching and telecom studies tell us is that key pillars of U.S. power are eroding, and unless we start tending to them in a strategic way, we aren't going to be able to project power anywhere.

Because we've long been rich, there is an abiding faith that we always will be, and those who dare question that are labeled "defeatists." I wouldn't call Lou Gerstner a defeatist. He saved I.B.M. by acknowledging its weaknesses and making dramatic changes — beginning with scrapping I.B.M.'s arrogant assumption that because it was such a great company, it could do extraordinary things with average people...

Menlo Park, CA – Students at several Bay Area schools that emphasize a longer school day, college preparation, and discipline, score consistently higher on standardized tests than students at comparable public schools, according to a new study.

The study examined five KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it was conducted by the Center for Education Policy at the well-respected research firm, SRI International, with support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This study marks the end of the first year of a three-year independent evaluation of the five schools.

KIPP schools are free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory charter public schools for disadvantaged students that increase the amount of instructional time by at least 50 percent over public schools, and also increase the efficiency of learning during that time. By emphasizing college preparation and a strong culture of achievement and discipline, KIPP schools expect their students to develop the knowledge, skills, and character needed to succeed in top-quality high schools, colleges, and the competitive world beyond.

SRI’s evaluation of standardized test results in these schools suggest that KIPP schools are posting gains beyond what would be expected in most subjects and grade levels, given their demographic composition. During the 2004-2005 school year, the percentage of students at or above the 50th percentile on the SAT 10, a norm-referenced test, increased in all five schools, ranging from six percentage points in fifth-grade reading in one school to 51 percentage points in sixth-grade math in another. California Standards Test results indicate the overall percentage of students performing at a proficient level or above is consistently higher for KIPP schools than for comparable schools in the district.

“The results of this independent, external evaluation of five Bay Area KIPP schools are encouraging,” said Marshall Smith, Director of the Hewlett Foundation’s Education Program. “The Hewlett Foundation looks forward to the next set of studies, which will tell us even more about how KIPP’s innovative model is helping students succeed.”

The five schools evaluated in the study are BayviewAcademy and SF Bay Academy in San Francisco, Bridge College Preparatory in Oakland, HeartwoodAcademy in San Jose, and SummitAcademy in San Lorenzo. At the time of evaluation, each school was less than three years old and served more than 700 students in grades 5, 6, and 7 in 2004-2005. On average, the schools serve 72 percent economically disadvantaged students and 75 percent African-American or Latino students.

The study, independent of both the Hewlett Foundation and KIPP, is the first to document how the national KIPP model is implemented in the Bay Area. The full report can be found at: http://www.sri.com/policy/cep/choice/KIPP.htm

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Anti-charter protesters

This is such an outrage!

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This appeared on the Hotline’s blog today:

All Politics Is Local......And nowhere more so than at the epicenter of the political epicenter.

We speak of Capitol Hill, where as we type this there are around 35 protestors carrying signs and chanting rhymes on the sidewalk in front of Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D) well-appointed rowhouse; a home on a block of E. Capitol St which, to put it mildly, does not see political protests every day.

What, you ask, would such a group be doing on a Monday night outside of the home of a Dem Senator from Katrina-scarred Louisiana? Turns out "Mary," as the group casually chanted her name, is an active supporter of charter schools both here and back home on the bayou.

The disparate coalition of Yuppie moms, longtime DC activists, and youthful hipsters assembled for the dusk rally contend that charter schools take away needed resources from traditional public schools. And, to add insult to injury, Landrieu has backed language included in Senate legislation to directly aid charter schools in the District, they said. Or, as one chant demanded more succinctly, "Meddling Mary, respect home rule!"

But why take their case to Landrieu's private residence (which was dark and assumedly empty)? Because the group wanted to "disturb her peace and privacy just as she has come into our homes and meddled in our private affairs," said one metaphorically-speaking and very on-message local mother.

Best of all, the group had hand-out's of their lyrical protest rhymes (two different versions), a flyer for an upcoming meeting, a press release touting the rally with bulleted bio's of the speakers on the back and even a clipboard'ed press sign-in sheet.

"LIFT CAP ON CHARTER SCHOOLS NOW!"

A number of people and organizations, including Democrats for Education Reform, were involved with a number of activities on Monday calling for an immediate increase in the cap on charter schools in New York state. There was a NYT ad, a press release (below) and a rally sponsored by Geoff Canada's Harlem Children's Zone. Though I couldn't attend, it was apparently an amazing event.

As you can see from the press release, Canada is an incredibly powerful and passionate warrior for children. I still remember a great line from one of his speeches: "I'm not aware of any organization in the world that is failing as badly as our urban public schools in which everyone goes home at 3pm."

March 27th, 2006 -- Harlem Children’s Zone was joined on the steps of City Hall today by educational and community leaders, parents and elected officials to urge New YorkState to lift the cap on charter schools now.

The overwhelming majority of children served by public charter schools in New York are African-American and Latino and come from economically disadvantaged homes.By any objective measure, these schools are succeeding at higher levels than the traditional public schools most of these children would otherwise attend.Now that the charter school cap is exhausted, thousands upon thousands of the city’s neediest children will be denied the education they are demanding – attendance in a quality public charter school.

With the overwhelming need for more charter schools, any delay in lifting the cap must be interpreted in only one way: pressure to maintain the status quo blocking expanded opportunity for kids who need it most.

“This is simply wrong.It is unconscionable to delay the expansion of opportunity to these children – especially when so many families in New York have so much educational opportunity,” said Geoffrey Canada, the event organizer and Harlem Children’s Zone President and CEO, “For the sake of our kids, the State must lift the charter school cap now.Our children need to be given more chances to succeed, and that’s what charter schools are all about.Our children deserve no less.”

Charter school facts:

87% of charter school students are African-American or Latino.

75% of charter school students are low-income.

Charter school students outscore peers at conventional public schools in their districts on the English Language Arts and Math tests in fourth and eighth grade.

This year, there are three times as many student applicants as available seats at New York City charter schools.

More than 25 groups have already submitted applications to the New York City Department of Education to open new charter schools in 2007.

Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc., is a not-for-profit agency that offers education, social service and community-building programs in Central Harlem. Mr. Canada has been the CEO and President of HCZ since 1990. Recently, he was named co-chair of Mayor Bloomberg’s task force on poverty. In September 2004 the agency formed the HCZPromiseAcademyCharterSchool, which will eventually run from kindergarten to 12th grade, serving 1300 students. In September 2005, it opened HCZ Promise Academy 2.

“If the city water system were failing and children were dying of thirst,” said Mr. Canada, “Would the State limit the number of private relief organizations allowed to save our children? Of course not – and getting a good education can literally save a poor child’s life.

“Each time the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy Charter Schools have held an admission lottery,” continued Mr. Canada, “I have had parents crying and pleading with me to help their children who didn’t get in. It’s absolutely heart-breaking and, worse, it absolutely doesn’t need to happen.”

Monday, March 27, 2006

Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math

I don't like the idea of mostly low-income minority kids not having art, etc., but when 60% of African-American 4th graders in this country (ALL of them, not just low-income ones) can't read a simple children's book, we have a national crisis on our hands. Desperate times require desperate measures, and nothing is more important than being able to read and do basic math.

Things like this are one of the reasons why I like No Child Left Behind -- it creates a crisis mentality when none existed before.

The real solutions are to upgrade the quality of the schools and teachers, so kids don't fall so far behind and, barring that, to have an extended school day and year for kids who are behind -- that way, they'll get the extra time for math and reading, but don't have to cut out other subjects. But alas, the adults in our school system won't like that, so the kids will continue to get screwed...

At King Junior High, in a poor neighborhood in Sacramento a few miles from a decommissioned Air Force base, the intensive reading and math classes have raised test scores for several years running. That has helped Larry Buchanan, the superintendent of the Grant Joint Union High School District, which oversees the school, to be selected by an administrators' group as California's 2005 superintendent of the year.

But in spite of the progress, the school's scores on California state exams, used for compliance with the federal law, are increasing not nearly fast enough to allow the school to keep up with the rising test benchmarks. On the math exams administered last spring, for instance, 17.4 percent of students scored at the proficient level or above, and on the reading exams, only 14.9 percent.

With scores still so low, Mr. Harris, the school's principal, and Mr. Buchanan said they had little alternative but to continue remedial instruction for the lower-achieving among the school's nearly 900 students.

SACRAMENTO — Thousands of schools across the nation are responding to the reading and math testing requirements laid out in No Child Left Behind, President Bush's signature education law, by reducing class time spent on other subjects and, for some low-proficiency students, eliminating it.

Schools from Vermont to California are increasing — in some cases tripling — the class time that low-proficiency students spend on reading and math, mainly because the federal law, signed in 2002, requires annual exams only in those subjects and punishes schools that fall short of rising benchmarks.

The changes appear to principally affect schools and students who test below grade level.

The intense focus on the two basic skills is a sea change in American instructional practice, with many schools that once offered rich curriculums now systematically trimming courses like social studies, science and art. A nationwide survey by a nonpartisan group that is to be made public on March 28 indicates that the practice, known as narrowing the curriculum, has become standard procedure in many communities.

Longtime Newark Mayor Ends Bid for Sixth Term

This made my day! It looks like Cory Booker's a shoo-in, which is GREAT news for the people of Newark, who have suffered under James's corrupt regime for 20 years! Cory, by the way, is a HUGE supporter of genuine school reform, is an outspoken national leader in this area, and sits on the board of the fabulous North Star Academy charter school in Newark.

Sharpe James, one of the last big city black mayors to come out of the civil rights movement, announced yesterday that he would not seek a sixth term.

Sharpe James entered his sixth race for mayor 11 days ago with the flourish of a Las Vegas heavyweight, arriving at City Hall to deliver his petitions in gym shorts, astride a police bicycle.

Mayor Sharpe James, who entered his sixth race for mayor 11 days ago, dropped out of the race today, withdrawing his name only hours before the ballots were to be sent to the printer.

Only 11 days after entering the race with the flourish of a Las Vegas heavyweight — arriving at City Hall to deliver his petitions astride a police bicycle — Mr. James withdrew from the May 9 election with a six-page letter delivered to the City Clerk's office just minutes before the ballots were to be sent to the printer.

Mr. James, who is also a state senator, said in his letter that he was leaving because he was "an opponent of dual office holding" and wanted to focus on state issues. He denied that age was an issue, despite having recently turned 70. And he emphasized that if he had stayed in race, he would have won because New Jersey's largest city is better off now than in 1986, when he was first elected.

"Under my leadership Newark has climbed the rough side of the mountain and has become a renaissance city with pride, prosperity and progress," he wrote. "Newark is now a destination city with planned programs and economic projects that will surface over the next decade."

Mr. James's withdrawal from the race clears the way for a race between State Senator Ronald L. Rice and Cory Booker, 36, a former Municipal Council Member and Rhodes Scholar whose second campaign for mayor has been chugging along for months.

It also puts an end to an era in which Newark's fortunes and national image have been inseparable from the showmanship and civic chauvinism of its mayor.

"Sharpe James is really the last of that group of New Jersey politicians that came to power as a result of the Newark riots," said Reginald Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey. "It's the end of a major era in the life of the city because I'm not sure anyone now has the capacity to put together a machine like Sharpe James did. He dominated the politics of Essex County, and in some major ways, the state."

Mr. James grew up poor on Howard Street in the city's South Ward. A teacher before entering politics, he started his civic career as a member of the Newark Municipal Council in 1970. As mayor, he developed a reputation for being the bedraggled city's most exuberant cheerleader, a defensive protector who was not above using his political machine or the contentious issue of race to get what he desired for Newark.

Clement Price, a historian at Rutgers University who teaches a course about this mostly black city of 280,000, said that the mayor deserves credit for helping Newark "recalibrate its image" after the 1967 riots that were among the nation's most violent examples of racial strife.

"He will be remembered as one of the leading figures who successfully slowed down and all but stopped Newark's slide into invisibility," Mr. Price said. After 40 years, he added, "the civil discourse has finally moved beyond the riots. Sharpe James forced people to look toward the future, not the past."

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Lottery set up for Harlem charter school

It'll be a great day when the politicians in Albany start listening to parents and their children, who are DEMANDING more charter schools in New York...

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Lottery set up for Harlem charter school

By Art McFarland

(Harlem-WABC, March 22, 2006) - In Harlem tonight, a very important lottery drawing took place.

However, it has nothing to do with winning money. Instead, it is a chance for students to receive a spot in a new charter school opening this fall.

But of the 440 applications, there are only 155 available spots.

Education reporter Art McFarland has the story.

Because of those numbers, there was a packed church basement here in Harlem. It's not exactly the New York State Lottery, but it's right up there in importance as far as they are concerned, because their children's future is at stake.

Jeanette Darby, parent: "Kids and the charter school is a little more prepared than they are in the regular public school."

So the Darby family had their fingers crossed that their little Jeanine will be chosen for Harlem's Success Academy. Charter schools hold the promise of a good education and the kind of attention from teachers that most parents want their children to have.

Michael Darby, parent: "Public schools is always overcrowded and in charter schools they pay more attention to you and devote more and more time than they do in public schools."

By law, spaces in charter schools are decided by lottery if the demand exceeds the number of spaces available. These lotteries are not always open to TV cameras, but the Harlem Success Academy wants the bright lights of the media to shine on this lottery.

Former City Council Education Chair Eva Moskowitz will be the lead administrator at the charter school.

Moskowitz: "I think this lottery tonight, which will be standing room only, will show the public that there is incredible demand. And what's standing in the way, in my opinion, are the politicians."

In about eight days, the state will decide whether or not to lift the cap on charter schools, so there can be more.

To All the Girls I've Rejected

I knew girls were kicking boys' butts (something I see up close and personal every day, as the proud father of three daughters), but I didn't realize it was to such a degree...

Had she been a male applicant, there would have been little, if any, hesitation to admit. The reality is that because young men are rarer, they're more valued applicants. Today, two-thirds of colleges and universities report that they get more female than male applicants, and more than 56 percent of undergraduates nationwide are women. Demographers predict that by 2009, only 42 percent of all baccalaureate degrees awarded in the United States will be given to men.

We have told today's young women that the world is their oyster; the problem is, so many of them believed us that the standards for admission to today's most selective colleges are stiffer for women than men. How's that for an unintended consequence of the women's liberation movement?

A FEW days ago I watched my daughter Madalyn open a thin envelope from one of the five colleges to which she had applied. "Why?" was what she was obviously asking herself as she handed me the letter saying she was waitlisted.

Why, indeed? She had taken the toughest courses in her high school and had done well, sat through several Saturday mornings taking SAT's and the like, participated in the requisite number of extracurricular activities, written a heartfelt and well-phrased essay and even taken the extra step of touring the campus.

She had not, however, been named a National Merit finalist, dug a well for a village in Africa, or climbed to the top of Mount Rainier. She is a smart, well-meaning, hard-working teenage girl, but in this day and age of swollen applicant pools that are decidedly female, that wasn't enough. The fat acceptance envelope is simply more elusive for today's accomplished young women....

Worried About India's and China's Booms? So Are They

Our K-12 public schools badly need improvement in a lot more than math and science!

The more I cover foreign affairs, the more I wish I had studied education in college, because the more I travel, the more I find that the most heated debates in many countries are around education. And here's what's really funny — every country thinks it's behind.

Tony Blair has been fighting with his own party over permitting more innovative charter schools. Singapore is obsessed with improving its already world-leading math scores before others catch up. And America agonizes that its K-12 public schools badly need improvement in math and science. I was just in Mumbai attending the annual meeting of India's high-tech association, Nasscom, where many speakers worried aloud that Indian education wasn't nurturing enough "innovators."

The more I cover foreign affairs, the more I wish I had studied education in college, because the more I travel, the more I find that the most heated debates in many countries are around education. And here's what's really funny — every country thinks it's behind.

Tony Blair has been fighting with his own party over permitting more innovative charter schools. Singapore is obsessed with improving its already world-leading math scores before others catch up. And America agonizes that its K-12 public schools badly need improvement in math and science. I was just in Mumbai attending the annual meeting of India's high-tech association, Nasscom, where many speakers worried aloud that Indian education wasn't nurturing enough "innovators."

Both India and China, which have mastered rote learning and have everyone else terrified about their growing armies of engineers, are wondering if too much math and science — unleavened by art, literature, music and humanities — aren't making Indira and Zhou dull kids and not good innovators. Very few global products have been spawned by India or China.

"We have no one going into the liberal arts and everyone going into engineering and M.B.A.'s," said Jerry Rao, chief executive of MphasiS, one of the top Indian outsourcing companies. "We're becoming a nation of aspiring programmers and salespeople. If we don't have enough people with the humanities, we will lose the [next generation of] V. S. Naipauls and Amartya Sens," he added, referring to the Indian author and the Indian economist, both Nobel laureates. "That is sad and dangerous."

Innovation is often a synthesis of art and science, and the best innovators often combine the two. The Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in his compelling Stanford commencement address last year, recalled how he dropped out of college but stuck around campus and took a calligraphy course, where he learned about the artistry of great typography. "None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life," he recalled. "But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography."

Fifty years ago the Sanskrit scholar was respected in India, Mr. Rao noted, but today it is all about becoming an engineer, a programmer, an M.B.A. or a doctor. "More people will get Ph.D.'s [in the study of] Sanskrit in America this year than in India," Mr. Rao asserted, "and Sanskrit is the root of our culture!"

Why all this ed-anxiety today? Because computers, fiber-optic cable and the Internet have leveled the economic playing field, creating a global platform that more workers anywhere can now plug into and play on. Capital will now flow faster than ever to tap the most productive talent wherever it is located, so every country is scrambling to upgrade its human talent base. When everyone has access to the same technology platform, human talent, as the consultants John Hagel III and John Seely Brown wrote, is the "only sustainable edge."

Hence the concern I found in India that it must move quickly from business process outsourcing (B.P.O.) — running back rooms, answering phones or writing code for U.S. companies — into knowledge process outsourcing (K.P.O.): coming up with more original designs and products.

"We need to encourage more incubation of ideas ... to make innovation a national initiative," said Azim Premji, the chairman of Wipro, one of India's premier technology companies. "Are we as Indians creative? Going by our rich cultural heritage, we have no doubt some of the greatest art and literature. We need to bring the same spirit into our economic and business arena."

But to make that leap, Indian entrepreneurs say, will require a big change in the rigid, never-challenge-the-teacher Indian education system. "If we do not allow our students to ask why, but just keep on telling them how, then we are only going to get the transactional type of outsourcing, not the high-end things that require complex interactions and judgment to understand another person's needs," said Nirmala Sankaran, C.E.O. of HeyMath, an Indian-based education company. "We have a creative problem in this country."

My guess is that we're at the start of a global convergence in education: China and India will try to inspire more creativity in their students. America will get more rigorous in math and science. And this convergence will be a great spur to global growth and innovation. It's a win-win. But some will win more than others — and it will be those who get this balance right the fastest, in the most schools.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Only the desperate fight facts with myths

Stossel provides more evidence that the points he made in Stupid in America are exactly right:

When studying education performance, it is far more accurate to compare schools using random assignment — using kids assigned schools by lottery so that those attending public and private schools come from the same population. Eight such random-assignment studies have been done. All eight find that private school students did better.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) objects that I "conveniently" failed to note that an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study found that "the six countries that spend the most on education as a percentage of GDP ... all score well above the international mean on the PISA." OK, some countries spend a lot of money and do well. But that very same OECD study said that no fewer than 20 countries that spend less money than we do achieve better scores, and that "Spending alone is not sufficient to achieve high levels of outcomes." The United States spends $83,910 per student from ages 6 to 15. The Slovak Republic, which outperforms the United States in this study, spends $17,612 per student.

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Jewish World Review March 22, 2006 / 22 Adar, 5766

Only the desperate fight facts with myths

By John Stossel

I hope the teachers in America's public schools are more candid than their union officials and some of the public-education advocates and leftist smear groups who are criticizing my TV special "Stupid in America." They are promoting myths:

The National School Boards Association (NSBA) accused me of making a "sweeping generalization" about poor American student performance from test results from a few American and Belgian students. Nope. I reported the results from the actual International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. The little test ABC gave matched the PISA results.

MediaMatters, a liberal media watchdog group, claimed we fudged per-pupil spending numbers when we said per-pupil spending, adjusting for inflation, has doubled to "more than $10,000 per pupil per year." They point to the "most recent" 2003 U.S. Census figure of $8,019 per pupil as a "gotcha." In fact, the estimates for 2004-05 from the U.S. Department of Education are well over $10,000 per pupil. Even using MediaMatters' own number, it is irrefutable that per-pupil spending has doubled over the last 30 years.

The NSBA claims "America's public schools outperform private schools when variables ... are controlled." This must refer to the recent study done at the University of Illinois, comparing fourth- and eighth-grade math scores. That study actually showed that public school students performed worse, but after the researchers used regression analysis to "control" for race/ethnicity, gender, disability, limited English proficiency, and school location, they manage to conclude that public school students outperform private and charter school students. When studying education performance, it is far more accurate to compare schools using random assignment — using kids assigned schools by lottery so that those attending public and private schools come from the same population. Eight such random-assignment studies have been done. All eight find that private school students did better.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) objects that I "conveniently" failed to note that an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study found that "the six countries that spend the most on education as a percentage of GDP ... all score well above the international mean on the PISA." OK, some countries spend a lot of money and do well. But that very same OECD study said that no fewer than 20 countries that spend less money than we do achieve better scores, and that "Spending alone is not sufficient to achieve high levels of outcomes." The United States spends $83,910 per student from ages 6 to 15. The SlovakRepublic, which outperforms the United States in this study, spends $17,612 per student.

The NEA also claimed I'm not objective because I make speeches for money. I do, but I donate the money to charities. For example, I give money to Student Sponsor Partners, an organization that pays for poor kids to go to private school. You might say I put my money where my mouth is — unlike the teachers' organizations, which often put their mouths where the money is.

Perhaps the most fundamentally flawed idea is this all-too-common one: "Public schools were created to provide a 'public good': education for all, regardless of a family's ability to pay ... By contrast, under a voucher system that gives public dollars to completely unmonitored private schools, there is no such right to expect or demand accountability for student performance or how tax dollars are spent." They don't get it. Competition brings accountability. Private schools may be "unmonitored" by bureaucrats, but they face the most demanding kind of supervision our society provides: a market full of freely choosing individuals. Parents' desire for a good education for their children is a much more powerful check on schools than any politician's law or union rule. The people who want to control every young American's education like to talk about accountability, but what they want is to make schools accountable to anointed bureaucrats who think they know what's best for all of us. They evade real accountability — the kind of accountability where if a student or parent realizes a school isn't doing its job, he can find another one.

I could go on; there are plenty of myths. But the most important point to remember is quite simple: If public schools are good, they have nothing to fear from school choice. Students and parents will choose them.

In Florida, 'Uniform' Foolishness

Kudos to George Will for highlighting the FL Supreme Courts idiotic decision -- and refocusing attention on the only thing that matters: what's best for children like Octavia Lopez. Can ANYONE make a straight-faced argument that she would be better off if she were forced out of Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School and back into the local public school that "has been rated a failing school for three consecutive years by the state"?!

It is stirring to see the quiet tenacity of people whose lives are disrupted by other people's political struggles. When Octavia and her mother -- and David Hill, 14, a ninth-grader, and his parents, and several other parents and relatives of students -- recently gathered around a table at the school to discuss the end of the OSP, there was no rancor. The children and parents at the table were black. None were Republicans. The NAACP, as usual, is in lock step with the Democratic Party, which is in lock step with the teachers unions. But the people at that table spoke only words of gratitude for the school -- its small classes and respectfulness. All displayed the dignified patience that ordinary people often display when they are buffeted by the opaque storms of politics.

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In Florida, 'Uniform' Foolishness

By George F. Will

Thursday, March 23, 2006; Page A23

Washington Post

MIAMI -- What Florida's teachers unions consider a menace, and what Florida's Supreme Court considers an affront to the state's constitution, weighs 105 pounds, smiles shyly, speaks softly and wants to be a nurse. Octavia Lopez, 17, an 11th-grader at Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School in the heart of this polyglot city, was enabled to come to this school because of the smallest of three school-choice programs enacted under Gov. Jeb Bush.

The Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) serves just 733 children statewide, 62 of whom are at this school of 416 students. The OSP provides vouchers, redeemable at private as well as public schools, to students at schools the state says are failing. Archbishop Curley, which in 1960 -- just its seventh year -- became the first Florida secondary school to be racially integrated, has grades nine through 12 and sends more than 98 percent of its graduates to college.

But Florida's Supreme Court fulfilled the desires of the teachers unions, and disrupted the lives of the 733 children and their parents, by declaring, in a 5 to 2 ruling, that the voucher program is incompatible with the state constitution. Specifically, and incredibly, the court held that the OSP violates the stipulation, which voters put into the constitution in 1998, that the state shall provide a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education."

The court wielded the first adjective as a scythe to cut down the OSP. It argued that the word "uniform" means that the state must utilize only public schools in providing "high quality education."

This even though many public schools are providing nothing of the sort; the public school that Octavia would have to attend were she not at Archbishop Curley has been rated a failing school for three consecutive years by the state. And even though the state can continue to utilize private schools for educating some disabled students. And even though, by the court's reasoning, it is unconstitutional for the state to use the OSP to help Octavia receive a fine education at Archbishop Curley, the constitutional mandate about "high quality education" requires consigning her to a failing school. And even though there is no evidence that the drafters of the constitution's language or the public that ratified it thought it meant what the Supreme Court now says it means -- that in providing quality education, the state must enforce a public school monopoly on state funds. Actually, the legislature's committee that drafted the "uniform" language rejected a proposal to prohibit vouchers.

The court's ruling was a crashing non sequitur: that the public duty to provide something (quality education) entails a prohibition against providing it in a particular way (utilizing successful private educational institutions). The court's ruling was neither constitutional law nor out of character, and it illustrates why the composition of courts has become such a contentious political issue.

This court last seized the nation's attention when, after the 2000 election, it acted legislatively, rewriting state election laws in ways helpful to Al Gore's attempt to erase George W. Bush's slender lead. Back then, all the court's seven members had been nominated by Democratic governors. Since then, the court has acquired two justices nominated by Gov. Bush. They were the two dissenters from the court's "uniformity" ruling. Elections can slowly turn tides.

All of Archbishop Curley's 43 Opportunity Scholarship children who are not graduating in June are going to stay in the school. The voucher is worth about $1,800 less than the school's $6,400 tuition, and about $3,400 less than the $8,000 cost of educating a pupil. But Brother Patrick Sean Moffett, the head of the school, says, "We're going to keep them all, somehow."

It is stirring to see the quiet tenacity of people whose lives are disrupted by other people's political struggles. When Octavia and her mother -- and David Hill, 14, a ninth-grader, and his parents, and several other parents and relatives of students -- recently gathered around a table at the school to discuss the end of the OSP, there was no rancor. The children and parents at the table were black. None were Republicans. The NAACP, as usual, is in lock step with the Democratic Party, which is in lock step with the teachers unions. But the people at that table spoke only words of gratitude for the school -- its small classes and respectfulness. All displayed the dignified patience that ordinary people often display when they are buffeted by the opaque storms of politics.